Easy Company Foxholes — Bois Jacques

Foy, BE

The **Bois Jacques** forest above Foy contains traces of the foxhole positions occupied by **Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division** during the siege of Bastogne in the winter of 1944–45. The company spent weeks in these frozen woods, enduring temperatures as low as −20°C, wearing summer uniforms supplemented by whatever civilian clothing they could find, with inadequate food, ammunition, and medical supplies. The foxholes — dug into frozen ground with improvised tools — provided the only protection against German artillery, which ranged the forest constantly. Many men suffered from trench foot, frostbite, and battle exhaustion before the siege was broken. The forest tracks through Bois Jacques closely follow the routes used by Easy Company patrols and the eventual attack on Foy in January 1945. Some original foxhole depressions remain visible in the forest floor, though they have naturally eroded over decades. The site is one of the most visited WWII locations in Belgium due to its association with the *Band of Brothers* television series, which dramatised Easy Company's experience in the Ardennes.